smells_like_meat:techmom: You are very welcome. I won't make you a Welcome thread to TFD though - that'd just be mean. ;)

Please. I want to be mean. I'll bring the lube.

kiwimoogle84: If smells_like_meat is still fighting with them, he needs to e-mail me. I need to look at his schedule of benefits. Something went wrong somewhere. And all I need is his ins carrier and ID number to sort out basically everything. The benefits of having employer/provider logins for every insurance website known to man. :)

Thanks but everything went fine. Our out of pocket was covered for billed expenses past our $7,500 maximum. I think my total bill was $750,000 or so.

The $30K total is an estimate for other not covered expenses particular to us. The treatment straddled the calender year so I was liable for $7,500 twice. Boarding the dogs. Non generic medications. Meals, travel, etc. etc. The in home nurse's screw up with the out of net lab for weekly blood work was $3K alone.

After 24/7 2 years at home I had to get CNAs in. At first once a week and then eventually twice. By the time he died I had them a few nights as he was awake almost all day and night and I was running low on life myself. The CNAs were not covered at all. There are a few grants to help. We're talking feeding tube and digestive aids and laxatives and waste products and bandages and supplies and.... Infinity.

VB is in my prayers that his home recovery is smoother and J won't have to reach this level. Remember mine was the opposite of healing so it just incurred more and more and more.

From his wife:"VBlackshadow and I are just blown away by the outpouring of kind words and financial donations that have come flooding in. To know that there are so many people out there who have our backs is very humbling and we will never be able to thank you enough for helping us get through this nightmare. You are all amazing, outstanding people and I hope to have the chance to thank each and every one of you in person and buy you many, many alcoholic beverages. God bless you all.

"On Superbowl Sunday, Blackshadow came down with what we assumed was your garden variety flu. By Thursday he was so sick that I had to call the paramedics; he was admitted to the ICU that night; at that time they knew he had pneumonia, but further tests revealed that he had a massive MRSA infection in his bloodstream and lungs. Within 24 hours he was intubated and sedated. He went into septic shock and I almost lost him for than once; it took a week and a half just to get him stabilized. He spent nearly a month in ICU and has been slowly recovering for the past 3 weeks. The infection is gone but the damage it's done is going to take a lot of work to recover from. He IS going to recover, thank God, but we've got a long way to go yet.

At this point I'm guessing that we're going to be facing around $5,000 to cover what the insurance won't - and Blackshadow's only receiving about half what he usually earns while he's on Disability. Any amount that can be gathered through a fundraiser would be a blessing. Thank you so much."

For transparency, while I might be in charge of this fundraiser, Sir Cumference the Flatulent, Roman Fyseek, and Blackshadow's wife have access to the email and the PayPal and email account.